Scream Me a Dream

Thursday September 16, 2010

“All right, I want to know everything.” Jyrki said sitting across from Ville who had paused from taking a drink of his Coke to stare at him. “Not for my own benefit but for Rosalind’s.”

“Don’t lie; you want to know just as much as we do.” Mige chuckled, sliding into the chair next to Ville as Linde took his seat at the head of the table while Jussi took a seat next to Jyrki.

“Yes, everything.” Jussi smirked. “I’m getting tired of hearing about Rosalind from Jyrks.”

Ville blinked. “I’m sorry, what are we talking about?”

“Your relationship with Soya!” Jyrki said. “We want to know how it’s going!”

“Oh, it’s going fine.” Ville said with a shrug bringing the can back to his mouth and taking a drink of Coke.

“’Fine’!” Jussi cried staring at Ville. “That’s the word you’re using to describe your relationship! ‘Fine’!”

Ville stared at Jussi in surprise. “Fine, I’ll say it’s going ‘fantastically’, what do you want to hear?”

“Details!” Linde said, “We haven’t all been together in a while, and I haven’t seen Soya in weeks!”

Ville shrugged. “She’s been busy; she just started construction on her studio.”

“We know that.” Mige said rolling his eyes. “We also know that you’ve been working on the remix and some other stuff, we just want to know how it’s been going.”

“It’s been going…” Ville trailed off as he saw Jussi’s raised eyebrow and snorted. “Really really well.”

Jyrki rolled his eyes. “At least tell us about your first date, Jussi and I haven’t seen you both since Sonisphere, so we want all the details.”

Ville blinked at his friend. “What date?”

Linde grabbed Ville’s arm and looked at him in disbelief. “You haven’t taken Soya out on a date?!”

Ville looked at all of his friends who were looking at him in surprise, suddenly feeling like he’d done something wrong. “Was I supposed to?” he asked slowly. He watched as Jyrki looked at him with wide eyes, Jussi threw his head back is disbelief while Linde shook his head and Mige groaned.

“Soya hasn’t dated before, right?” Jyrki asked Ville.

“She’s dated.” Ville answered carefully.

“But Rosalind said you were her first boyfriend.” Jussi pointed out.

“I am.” Ville nodded.

“So that means the girl hasn’t been on a real first date with her real first boyfriend.” Jyrki spelled out.

“You have to ‘woo’ the girl Valo!” Mige said.

Ville frowned. “But ‘wooing’ is to get the girl, I have the girl, why do I have to continue?”

Linde laughed. “I don’t think what you did to get Soya is even considered ‘wooing’.”

“Can we stop using the word ‘wooing’ please?” Ville asked with a shake of his head, amused at the conversation he was having.

When Linde had called him and told him to meet them at Café Bar 9, he had agreed, since Jussi and Jyrki were leaving for their South American tour the next day. He never thought he would be grilled about his relationship with Soya, it was actually something he was least expecting when getting together with them.

“Look I’ve been with Rosalind…God, going on ten years now.” Jyrki said. “And even I still have to take her out on dates.”

“Well Rosalind makes you.” Jussi corrected, looking at Jyrki. “She threatens you with sex if you don’t.”

“That’s beside the point.” Jyrki dismissed waving his hand before turning back to Ville. “It still applies; you have to take your woman out on a date to make her happy.”

“But Soya is happy.” Ville said.

“How do you know?” Mige asked.

“Because she’s told me?” Ville laughed. “Look Soya likes our relationship as it is, we’re both working and really dating is so…”

“So what Ville?” Jussi asked with a raised eyebrow.

Ville shrugged. “I don’t know, it just doesn’t fit us, I’ve been on dates before and they’re so awkward and you have to find something to talk about. Soya and I are comfortable with our routine.”

“Routine?!” Jussi asked, “You’ve been dating, what, a month?”

“Month and two weeks.” Ville nodded, not catching the grins on his friends’ faces

“And you already have a routine?!” Jussi continued.

“Well…yeah, don’t you?” he asked, looking at Jyrki

Jyrki snorted, “I’m never with Rosalind long enough to develop a routine.”

Ville looked at Mige and Linde, Mige looked at Linde, before turning to Ville and speaking first. “Sure, when I’m home Vedrana and I have a routine, I take out the trash and wash dishes and all that, but I still take my wife on dates Ville.”

“I took Toni on a date last week.” Linde said with a shrug. “You just have to.”

Ville blinked before lifting the can up to his lips again, thinking about it; he swallowed the sweet soda before shrugging. “I’m sure if Soya wanted to go on a date she’d tell me.”

Mige snorted. “I’m sorry, are we talking about the same woman?”

“We are.” Ville said slowly, wondering what his friends had to say now.

“Soya is the master of keeping things to herself, Ville.” Linde said, “If she was bothered by the fact that you haven’t taken her out on a date she would very well keep it to herself.”

“And as she’s never been on a date,” Jussi said. “She’s probably waiting for you to ask her out, she seems like the traditional sort.”

Ville sighed. “I’m sure Soya is fine with us not going out on dates,” Ville shrugged. “We’re working all day; the last thing we both want to do is get dressed up and go out to dinner.” Ville gave a light smile as he thought about their nights. “We like staying home and ordering in.”

“All right, you have me curious, what is this routine you and Soya have fallen into?” Jyrki asked, really amused with his friend.

Ville laughed. “I don’t know, we just call each other when we’re done with our day, if Soya’s finished first she’ll head to her flat and if it’s me, I’ll head home, and the other just follows, for the last few days it’s been my tower, but I’m heading over to Soya’s flat after this.”

“All right, so once you figure out where you’re staying for the night, what happens?” Jussi asked with a smirk.

“Well, usually it’s evening so we start getting dinner ready, either deciding if we’re ordering in or fixing it, and while we wait or as we’re fixing dinner we talk about what we did with our days.”

“And that’s it?” Linde asked, “You talk about your days?”

Ville nodded. “Yeah, then while we’re eating we either watch a movie or some TV or we’ll pick a book and read.”

“Silently?” Mige asked.

“Aloud.” Ville corrected.

“Well that’s slightly better.” Mige said with a roll of his eyes.

“We do that for about two hours then go to bed.” Ville finished.

“God Valo, that’s so romantic it’s no wonder Soya’s not jumping you here and now.” Jyrki said with a shake of his head. “Where are the candles? And flowers? And the moonlit dinners?”

Ville raised an eyebrow. “You did all of that for Rosalind? Really?”

“Well, not the candles, she hates candles,” Jyrki said. “But I’ve done the flowers and moonlit dinners and romantic evenings out; sure.”

“Shit, I don’t have a girlfriend and I do it Ville.” Jussi said. “Come on now, I mean, do you guys at least fool around before going to sleep?”

Ville felt his cheeks heat, he didn’t mind talking about his sex life with his friends, he had before, but for some reason Soya was very different, it felt like he was tainting something between him and Soya if he talked about it. Yes, they’d moved their intimate relationship forward, but they hadn’t slept together as of yet and he knew Soya wasn’t ready for that step and frankly neither was he.

“We haven’t had sex, and that’s all I’m saying about it.” Ville said firmly. “If Soya wants to tell you about what we do, that’s fine, but I’m not going to talk about it.”

“Well at least you guys fool around.” Jussi muttered, finding the answer in Ville’s response, no man ever got that defensive if he weren’t doing something that could mar a woman’s reputation.

“Okay, say you do want to have sex.” Linde stated.

“I’m not talking about this.” Ville said cutting Linde off.

“No, wait, hear me out Ville.” Linde said holding his hand up to stop Ville from talking over him. “Say you do want to have sex with her, how do expect to accomplish that with a routine? Do you really think that without romance, Soya will be willing to sleep with you?”

“I really do.” Ville said looking at his blonde friend.

“Would you like to bet on that?” Linde laughed.

“We have trust between us and I’m not betting on my own sex life. I don’t need to take Soya out on a date to get her to sleep with me, and I’m not taking her out on a date solely for that reason either.”

“I still say it’s shitty that you haven’t taken her on at least one date.” Jussi said with a shrug. “I understand that you guys are comfortable with your relationship and all, but the girl deserves at least one date with her boyfriend.”

Ville thought about it and felt the guilt rise up that he hadn’t offered to take Soya out on a date; they’d just settled into the routine and he figured that since she was happy with it and hadn’t mentioned going out on a date, she didn’t want one.

“Wow.” Ville said blinking at the table.

Mige threw his hands up in success. “We have him thinking!”

“So, would you like to know what to do on the date you’re going to be taking Soya on?” Linde asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I’ve been on dates.” Ville said with a roll of his eyes.

“Ah, but not with Soya.” Jyrki teased.

“Look, I came here to get lunch, are we going to eat or are you guys going to keep acting like bastards?” Ville asked, causing his friends to stare at him before laughing.

While the rest of lunch had moved away from the topic of Ville and his apparent lack of knowledge on how to ‘woo’ a woman, the cab ride to Soya’s had gone back to it with Jyrki and Jussi following him, having not seen Soya in weeks, while Linde and Mige went to rehearse with the rest of Daniel Lioneye.

“So, do you know where you’re going to take her?” Jussi asked.

Ville rolled his eyes. “I thought we were done with this topic?”

“Apparently you don’t know Jussi.” Jyrki snorted.

Ville looked over at him. “Did you go visit Rosalind and Impi?”

Jyrki raised an eyebrow. “I did.” Jyrki said slowly. “I was over there for a few days after ‘Highfield’, Impi made me watch ‘The Princess and the Frog’ with her. Good movie, by the way.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Ville chuckled.

“Why?” Jyrki asked.

“I was just wondering, Soya was talking to Rosalind the other day and it wasn’t until she hung up that she realized she hadn’t asked about how you guys were doing.”

Jyrki frowned. “We’re fine, why wouldn’t we be?”

Ville shrugged. “Soya’s probably over thinking the argument you guys had after Sonisphere.”

“Argument?” Jyrki frowned, thinking back to Sonisphere. “Oh! That wasn’t an argument, that was Rosalind being a brat; which she usually is whenever we part, even if it’s her leaving me.”

“Mind telling my girlfriend that?” Ville laughed. “She tends to worry about her friends, and you’ve apparently fallen into that friend category pretty damn quickly with her.”

“I’m touched.” Jyrki laughed as the cab pulled up to Soya’s apartment building behind a black town car.

“Jonah’s here.” Ville noted as he looked at the car before paying the cab driver and following Jussi out of the car.

“Jonah?” Jussi asked.

“Soya’s father.” Ville answered.

Jyrki closed the door and watched as the cab disappeared from view, noticing that an older man was leaning against the black car reading the paper.

“Hey Nathan.” Ville greeted, causing the man to look up.

“Afternoon, Mr. Valo.”

“Has Jonah been up there long?” Ville asked, wondering if he was going to be interrupting anything if he opened the door. Usually when Jonah came to visit, he and Soya had long conversations that usually left Soya drained. Though, from what he’d noticed, their relationship was a million times better from the first time he’d seen Jonah back in May.

“No, we just got here ourselves, Mr. Toivonen had some appointments today and Miss. Soya volunteered to take care of Aida, we’ve just come to pick her up.”

“Ah, then we’ll head up. Good to see you Nathan.” Ville said, opening the door for Jyrki and Jussi who were watching the interaction curiously.

Nathan nodded with a smile as he returned to his paper. “Good to see you as well Mr. Valo.”

“Is Soya’s family a part of the mob or something?” Jussi asked, looking over his shoulder at the black town car and Nathan before following Ville and Jyrki up the stairs.

Ville laughed. “No, Soya’s father used to be the minister of finance.”

Jussi blinked. “That’s why her last name is so fucking familiar.”

“I thought you knew, Jus.” Ville laughed.

“So what’s with the dude out front?” Jussi asked.

“That’s Nathan; he’s the family driver, he used to drive Soya around when she was younger.” Ville said with a shrug. “He’s a nice guy; he used to take Soya to our band practices when we couldn’t pick her up after her ballet classes.”

“Seems like a nice guy.” Jyrki nodded as they reached Soya’s floor, Ville taking the keys out of his pocket and unlocking Soya’s door, surprised to find the door wouldn’t open all the way.

“What the hell?” He muttered.

“Oh! Ville, hold on a minute we blocked the door!” Soya called with a laugh. “Aida, help me move this.”

“I’ve got it Soya.” Jonah said.

“No, no.” Soya laughed, “Stay there, I’m just going to move it so I can let Ville in.”

“Do you need help Soya?” Aida’s small voice came.

“Just push it sweetheart.”

“I can’t even see them and this conversation is highly entertaining.” Jyrki laughed.

“Is someone with you Ville?” Soya asked, before Ville heard something move across her hard wood floor, allowing the door to open all the way. “Ah! Jyrki!” Soya laughed, as she moved out the door to hug her friend. “And Jussi!” she said with a grin, hugging him as well. “Well, to what do I owe this pleasure?”

“Ville told us he was coming over after we all had lunch; we haven’t seen you since Sonisphere so we figured we’d come and say hi, but we see you’re busy so…” Jussi started.

“No! No, come in.” Soya laughed waving them in. “Sorry, Aida and I moved the couch earlier,” she said motioning to the couch that was currently by the door.

“By yourselves?” Ville asked in surprise as Soya gripped his hand.

“Aida helped.”

“Hi Ville.” Aida said with a shy smile as she kneeled on the couch, only to hide her face with a blush when he winked at her.

“What are you two up to, huh?” Ville asked leaning down to kiss Aida’s cheek, causing the seven year old to giggle. Ever since Soya had had lunch with her father and had had her second uncensored conversation with him, Aida and Jonah would come over to her flat at least once a week, either to have a meal or for Soya to watch Aida while Jonah went to his appointments.

Sometimes Ville would join them for their meals if he was already at the flat when Jonah and Aida arrived; but most of the times if he knew in advanced, he would make himself scarce, allowing Soya that time with her father. Mostly because when he joined them, he felt like Soya tried too hard to get him to join the conversation and he felt Jonah didn’t say everything he wanted to say because Ville was there.

Although, he had joined Soya countless times while she babysat her little sister, Aida was a mini copy of Soya in how painfully shy she was. Even if she had warmed up to Ville, it had taken a lot of prodding for her to finally make eye contact with him, let alone say more than one word to him.

“We were dancing.” Aida said quietly, looking over his shoulder at Jyrki and Jussi, before hopping off the couch and standing next to Jonah who was sitting on the purple chair that usually sat next to the couch.

“Do you want to show them what I taught you Aida?” Soya grinned, knowing what her little sister would say; sure enough Aida shook her head violently before hiding her face in her father’s arm.

Jonah chuckled kissing the top of Aida’s head. “It’s fine Aida, why don’t you go grab your things, we have to go home now.”

“All right.” Aida said, looking over at Jyrki and Jussi again before running towards the guest room where she had put her things.

“Sorry” Soya laughed as she led them further into the flat. “Aida’s a bit weary around new people.”

“It’s fine.” Jyrki chuckled, removing his sunglasses and placing them on top of his head. “I would say Impi’s the same, but she’s nothing like that, the girl is exactly like her mother.”

Soya laughed. “I know, ah, isi, I’m sorry. These are my friends, Jyrki and Jussi, guys this is my father Jonah.”

“Pleasure to meet you.” Jonah said shaking their hands. “Ville, it’s good to see you again.”

“Good to see you too, sir.” Ville said with a smile as Aida came back out of the hall holding her small pink dance bag, though she was still wearing a pink leotard and tights with a black tutu, along with her ballet shoes.

“Aida! You’ll freeze if you go outside like that, especially when you get back home, come on let’s get you into some actual pants.” Soya said picking her little sister up.

“But you’re dressed the same way!” Aida said, sure enough when Ville looked at his girlfriend he noticed she was wearing black tights and her own black long sleeved leotard with a pink tutu with a satin knot that rested on her hip.

“Yes, but I’m staying inside.” Soya said with a roll of her eyes as she took her sister back into the bedroom.

“Soya, she’ll be…” Jonah waved his hand as Soya closed the guest room door. “I haven’t seen you around when I come over Ville.” Jonah said looking back at Ville.

“I usually get back here late,” Ville explained. “or Soya meets me at my tower.”

“Are you boys in a band as well?” Jonah asked, looking at Jyrki and Jussi up and down with a raised eyebrow.

Jyrki held in the laugh at being called a boy, but nodded. “We are.”

“Jyrki is dating Rosalind isi, you remember Rosalind.” Soya said, holding Aida’s hand who was now wearing a pair of jeans over her tights along with actual shoes.

“The one you use to board with at Julliard?” Jonah asked.

“Yes, that’s her, you met her once.” Soya said. “In Chicago, with her daughter.”

“Ah, I remember now.” Jonah laughed as he took Aida’s bag and looked at Jyrki. “You must be a strong man to deal with that one.”

Soya giggled. “He deals with her just fine papa.” She leaned down and kissed Aida’s cheek. “Keep practicing those turns and you’ll be caught up with the rest of the class in no time, all right?”

“All right.”

“Go hug Ville before you hurt his feelings.”

Aida giggled before going and hugging Ville’s leg, causing him to laugh and crouch down to hug her properly, kissing her cheek. “I’ll see you later.”

“Bye.” Aida said quietly, grabbing her father’s hand and letting him lead her out the door.

“I’ll talk to you later Soya.” Jonah said. “Ville, it was good seeing you. Boys, nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too” Jussi said with a small smile, as Jonah closed the door.

“Your father is a very intimidating man.” Jyrki said as Soya motioned them to help her with her couch.

“Is he?” Soya laughed looking at Jyrki. “I don’t notice it anymore.” She pushed with them, moving the couch to its original place, before she moved towards the entertainment center and moved her coffee table. “I was teaching Aida some turns, but we found we didn’t have enough room to do it.”

“With your ankle you shouldn’t be moving the couches by yourself.” Ville said sitting on the couch, Jyrki and Jussi followed suit.

“My ankle’s fine, stop worrying.” Soya said with a roll of her eyes as she sat next to her boyfriend and kissed his cheek, before turning to her friends. “I started limping yesterday and Ville practically chained me to the bed wanting me to keep off it.”

“Or for other reasons.” Jussi muttered, causing Ville to glare while Soya blushed.

“Does your ankle still bother you from when you hurt it back at Westchester?” Jyrki asked.

Soya shrugged. “It’s probably a combination of when I twisted it last year and when it happened again in May. Sometimes, if I step on it wrong or overuse it, it starts to bother me. Like today, I probably shouldn’t have danced on it, but I haven’t had a chance to dance with Aida and I wanted to. I’ll soak it tonight before bed and it’ll be fine in the morning. Now you two, tell me where you’ve been hiding! You’ve been back nearly three weeks and this is the first I’m seeing you, I’m very hurt.” Soya teased.

“You’re a hard girl to track down.” Jussi laughed. “You’ve been busy in the month and a half you’ve been here.”

Soya laughed. “I’m either at the studio talking to contractors or with Ville. I’m not too hard to find, I just think you forgot about me.”

Jyrki laughed. “I have an excuse; I spent my first week off with Rosalind.”

“So you two are fine then?” Soya asked biting her lip.

“Told you she worried.” Ville chuckled.

“We’re fine Soya, trust me. Rosalind and I have had worse arguments than the one you witnessed at Sonipshere; I don’t even consider Sonisphere an actual argument. You should know by now that Rosalind and I never part on bad terms.”

“I know but, as Ville pointed out, I worry.”

“I’m honored that you worry about us, but we’re fine and we’ll continue to be fine.”

Soya laughed “Thank you for the reassurance, but I’ll still worry.”

Jussi laughed. “I really like you Soya.”

“Aw Jussi I like you too.” Soya chuckled.

Jyrki and Jussi spent the next hour with Soya and Ville, telling them stories of their summer festival experiences before saying goodbye and leaving the couple alone.

“So, I’ve been an asshole.” Ville said sitting on the closed toilet seat as Soya moved around the bathroom preparing the water for her to soak her ankle.

“Yes, you have been.”

“What?” Ville asked with wide eyed, having not been prepared for her to agree with him

Soya paused and looked at him. “Sorry, I thought it was the girlfriend’s job to agree with everything her boyfriend said.”

Ville groaned and grabbed her hand, pulling her to sit on his lap, kissing her lightly with a laugh. “Not about something like this, though I have been.”

“Why do you say that?” Soya asked resting her feet on the lip of the tub as she looked at Ville.

“Because I haven’t taken you out on a proper date.” Ville said. “Or any date at all.”

“Oh, well I never expected you to.” Soya said with a shrug, noticing the water level was getting a bit high, she stood up and turned the water for the tub off and rooted through her medicine cabinet for her Epsom salt.

“You didn’t?” Ville asked, shaking his head, he knew Soya was happy with their relationship as it was.

Soya shrugged. “Not really, I’ve never really been on a date that’s ended well anyway; I sort of dread them.”

“Why?” Ville asked as she poured some of the lavender Epsom salt into the tub.

“Well, all the men, all six of them.” Soya said with a roll of her eyes. “That Josef has set me up with have been disasters.” She looked at Ville. “Close your eyes.”

Ville did as he was told knowing Soya was about to change but, due to their conversation, she was letting him stay in the room.

“Plus I never counted them as proper dates anyway.” Soya said, as Ville heard the rustling of clothing, before he felt her hand tug his shirt up. Smirking, he pulled his shirt off and handed it to her. “Thank you.” She laughed.

“Why weren’t they proper dates?”

“You can open your eyes now.” Soya said, Ville opened his eyes to see Soya in only his black shirt. Her leotard, tutu and tights lay on the bathroom floor as she slipped her feet into the tub sitting on the lip, giving him a slight view of the white lace panties she had on. He quickly averted his gaze, looking up at her face only to see her silently laughing at him, before she responded.

“I think I’m much more the traditional girl when it comes to dating, I like the idea of a man coming to the door with flowers to pick me up, take me to dinner and charm me.” Soya shrugged. “All the dates I’ve been on have been blind dates where I meet the man at the restaurant, he bores me to death about his life and never allows me to talk; needless to say, those men were never kissed goodnight. Plus, you’ve already charmed me.”

Ville laughed. “But shouldn’t we at least have one date. One night out at a nice restaurant, just us two?”

“Couldn’t this be considered a date as well?” Soya asked looking over at him as she moved her ankle around the water, flexing the muscle with a wince. “I mean it’s just us two, we’ll order in a nice dinner, and if it makes you feel better, I’ll light some candles and make it really nice, and we’ll even eat at the dinner table tonight.”

Ville laughed. “I mean it Soya, I think we should go out on a date. In fact I’m not even asking you anymore, I’m telling you, we’re going out on a date on Saturday.”

Soya laughed. “Really?”

“Yes.” Ville said nodding decisively. “And to a nice place, not somewhere where we wear jeans and order using numbers Soya, and no place with ‘to-go’ bags. I mean a sit down dinner with candles and shit.”

Soya laughed. “You are really into this aren’t you?”

“I really want to do this Soya; you should get a proper date.”

Soya smiled at him. “Fine, we’ll go on a date. So, now that you’ve ruled out jeans as a clothing option, what am I to wear?”

“Something nice.” Ville said with a nod, causing Soya to raise an eyebrow. “I mean, not that you don’t look nice every day, just you know…”

“I know what you mean Ville.” Soya laughed, loving how quick Ville was to backpedal. “So a skirt or a dress.” Soya said. “And heels, I’m assuming flats are out of the question.”

“If your ankle is fine with heels, then yes.”

“My ankle will be fine.” Soya said with a roll of her eyes. “So where will we be going?”

“That I’m not sure of yet, but I do have one thing to ask of you.”

“Oh?”

Ville bit the inside of his cheek before smiling at her. “Think we can borrow Nathan for the night?”